asked the Minister for Finance the total cost of the redundancy and early retirement scheme in the public service to date and the anticipated cost of same in 1988; if he will disaggregate the payments by area by (1) each local authority and health board (2) by numbers and (3) sums paid; and the anticipated saving in wage costs in 1988 from the programme.
Written Answers. - Public Service Redundancy and Early Retirement Scheme.
35.
Issues from the Vote for Public Service Early Retirement Payments in 1987 and 1988 to date amount to £63.249 million. The Estimate for 1988 is £80 million.
In addition to the payments already made from the Vote, claims have yet to be lodged by Departments in respect of persons who have already left. On this basis, the amounts issued from the Vote understate the level of departures to date.
Including claims in the pipeline, it is understood that a total of 7,720 public servants have already availed of the early retirement terms at an estimated saving in wage costs in 1988 of £62 million.
Details of the redundancies sanctioned in each local authority area and the amounts recouped to each county and city manager were furnished by the Minister for the Environment in reply to a parliamentary question on 19 October.
The information requested by the Deputy on the cost of redundancy payments by each health board could not be obtained in the time available.